Restored Virginity Comes With a Price for One Woman

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We've long been a bit leery of the enduring concept of virginity. The whole idea is fraught with a history of pitting women who are virgins against those are not in some sort of good-versus-evil binary. (As in, virgins have been largely considered pure, whole, and intact, while non-virgins have been viewed as used or damaged goods.)

A recent case in Abu Dhabi further emphasizes this troubling dichotomy: An Egyptian woman was recently fined $7,500 for having virginity surgery—i.e. restoring her vagina to its pre-sex form—before she married her current husband. Apparently, she had been married before to another man, but divorced him and underwent the procedure, then kept that information from her current spouse. (He recently received a text from an undisclosed individual informing him of his wife's past.)

While we don't agree with the fact that she lied to her husband about her previous life, she really didn't have a choice, since, in much of Arab society, a woman who has already had sex is seen as far less desirable than one who is a virgin (see: aforementioned stigmas). The money she is being forced to pay her husband—who is now divorcing her—is for the "emotional damage" her lying caused him. The man is allegedly, "suffering from depression and had lost trust in the people around him as a result of her deception."

This story serves as a reminder of how lucky we really are to live in the United States. Sure, stigmas surrounding our sex lives, alleged promiscuity, and virginity remain, but we're grateful that we don't have to hide our sexual histories out of fear of being legally prosecuted.